Visitors to the Nakata.net Cafe in Tokyo can receive assistance in several languages. (Jiji)

Predictions announced by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport at the end of April suggest that around 400,000 people will visit Japan for the FIFA World Cup, to be held from May 31 to June 30. With so many foreigners visiting at the same time, even places not directly related to the tournament need to prepare carefully. It looks as though those preparations are coming on well.

Nakata Lends a Hand
During the tournament 32 World Cup matches will be played at 10 venues in Japan, including the final on June 30 in Yokohama. Fans will need to travel to various places to watch their teams' matches, and foreigners who are unfamiliar with Japan could encounter a range of problems.

However, if they go to the Nakata.net Cafe that has been established at the Tokyo International Forum near Tokyo Station - the hub of Japan's rail network - they will be able to get vital information on things like the host cities over the Internet. With a number of people who can speak foreign languages stationed at the cafe, fans will also be able to ask questions directly.

The idea for the cafe came from Hidetoshi Nakata, who has been playing in Serie A, the Italian top division, since 1998. He reasoned that people visiting Japan from around the world for the World Cup may have difficulties because they do not know Japanese language and culture, so he proposed the cafe to his office in Tokyo. The cafe will be open every day from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. until July 14.

In order to help visitors with the cost of getting to the venues, Japanese airlines have set a flat-rate fare of ¥6,300 ($48.46 at ¥130 to the dollar) per domestic flight for travelers who have entered Japan from abroad. There is already a ¥12,600 ($96.92) discount fare for foreign tourists, but the companies have halved the price for the duration of the World Cup.

Late-Night Bullet Trains Planned
Some venues do not have enough accommodation near the stadiums to cope with all of the fans. And depending on the time when matches finish, it is possible that public transport services may no longer be running, so foreign tourists could find themselves unable to get back to their hotels and unable to find accommodation locally. East Japan Railway Company, Central Japan Railway Company, and others have therefore decided to run Shinkansen services late at night where necessary, in order to take visitors from provincial host cities to nearby major cities.

For example, despite being about 130 kilometers (81 miles) from Fukuroi, where Shizuoka Stadium is located, the Atami Spa Hotel and Inn Association in the city of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, is ready to use its considerable accommodation capacity to welcome over 1,000 World Cup visitors.

Don't Forget to See the Sights!
The host regions have come up with various ideas to entice visitors to sightsee while they are in the area. In the famous spa-resort city of Beppu, near Oita Stadium Big Eye, the hotel and inn association has produced an illustrated guide on how to bathe in an onsen (hot spring). It explains the Japanese style of bathing with such instructions as "Please bathe naked" and "Please wash outside the bathtub." Meanwhile, an association of restaurateurs in the Noge district of Yokohama has prepared English menus. Since just writing alphabetized names of Japanese foods would still leave most foreigners not knowing what kind of food it was, the association had the idea of adding simple explanations of how the dishes are prepared.

All levels of Japanese society, from government to local authorities, businesses, and individuals, are preparing to welcome thousands of visitors from around the world.